Donovan

M. Catherine Donovan and Henry Rush Gearhart were married June 19 in the Atlantic Methodist Church, Ocean City, Md. The bride is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Franklin Gayman of Chambersburg. The bridegroom is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry R. Gearhart, also of Chambersburg. Both are employed at New Wave Inc. in Ocean City, Md., where the bride is president and the bridegroom is chief executive officer. Mrs. Gearhart is a graduate of Penn Hall Preparatory School and Centenary College.

Safely re-elected mayor of Allentown, Ed Pawlowski can turn his full attention to his bid to become Pennsylvania's next governor. Pawlowski defeated independent challenger Michael Donovan with 62 percent of the vote, a comfortable margin but one that fell about 12 points short of the margin in his last election. Pawlowski received roughly 74 percent of the vote in 2009 against a Republican challenger. Donovan, a professor at Cedar Crest College, collected 38 percent of the vote, exceeding even his own expectations.

Mrs. Lois A. Donovan, 63, of Allentown, died Saturday in Allentown Hospital. She was the widow of Eugene (Curtis) Donovan. Born in Philipsburg, Centre County, she was a daughter of the late John D. and Elizabeth (Bennett) James. Surviving are a daughter, Patricia, wife of William Evans of Allentown; a son Michael of Coopersburg; two brothers, Robert and John, both of Allentown, and five grandchildren. Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the Bachman Funeral Home, 1030 Walnut St., Allentown.

With the election a week away, Allentown mayoral candidate Michael Donovan rallied his supporters Tuesday to discuss his community development and policing strategies, further emphasizing how he differs from incumbent Ed Pawlowski. Clutching a copy of a Wall Street Journal article about Allentown's redevelopment efforts, Donovan said the story, which was published Tuesday, highlights the fact that the money being invested in the city's Neighborhood Improvement Zone is a gamble. The first-of-its-kind NIZ designation, which directs state and city taxes toward redevelopment efforts downtown, has spurred the construction of a $350 million arena complex and the 11-story National Penn Bancshares building, among others.

Elizabeth I. `Betty' Donovan, 86, formerly of Phillipsburg, died Thursday, Feb. 19, in Easton Nursing Center. She was the wife of the late Francis A. "Tim" Donovan. She was head cashier at the former Laubach's (Pomeroy's) Department Store, Easton, for 31 years until it closed in 1976. Born in Phillipsburg, she was a daughter of the late Edward and Mabel (Smith) Rinehart. Survivors: Daughter, Betty of Easton; son, Richard Walters of Oxford, N.J., 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Hard to say what's more ridiculous. Is it Wilma McNabb's concern over how her son Donovan will be perceived should the Eagles win a Super Bowl without him? Or is it the desire of a certain segment of the fan base to see Donovan traded, now that that youngster, Jeff Garcia, is playing so well in his place? Everybody just stop. Stop it this instant, or I'll turn this column right around. Can't anybody in Birdland enjoy a season for its own sweet sake? Must there always be a subplot?

Allentown City Councilman Michael Donovan's plea to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to scale down their popular postgame pyrotechnics shows has produced some fireworks of its own. Donovan made remarks critical of the minor league club's fireworks shows in a story published Saturday in The Morning Call. The story detailed how the team planned to make adjustments to cut down on noise and reduce the number of shows that get pushed back due to rain. Donovan has been defending the comments in e-mails and on his blog Inclusion, where he routinely gives his position on local and national issues.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski will have some competition this fall. Former City Councilman W. Michael Donovan announced Tuesday that he will challenge Pawlowski in a bid for mayor. Donovan, a professor at Cedar Crest College, served on council from 2008-11. Recently, he has advocated for more transparency and cooperation between the city administration and the public in the debate over the city's proposed water and sewer lease. Before a crowd gathered in front of City Hall, Donovan pledged to create a more inclusive city government if elected.

By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call and By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call | August 7, 2013

The Allentown mayoral race is officially contested. Former City Councilman W. Michael Donovan filed nomination papers as an independent candidate for mayor by the Aug. 1 deadline, Lehigh County election officials said. Donovan announced in April that he would face off against two-term Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination during the May primary. During his spring announcement, Donovan pledged to help city residents see benefits from the Neighborhood Improvement Zone, the city's one-of-a-kind zone that allows developers to tap tenants' state and city taxes, not including property taxes, to finance construction.

By this point in his first mayoral campaign, then-candidate Ed Pawlowski had participated in at least five debates or forums, held nearly a dozen news conferences on city issues and amassed a sizable war chest that outmatched opponent Bill Heydt. Eight years later, as he seeks his third term and pursues a simultaneous bid for governor, Pawlowski has kept a noticeably lower profile — letting mayoral appearances take the place of most campaign press events, avoiding his opponent's debate invitations and making only one appearance at a campaign forum.

By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call and By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call | October 22, 2013

In the first and only campaign forum where they will both appear, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski and challenger Michael Donovan traded barbs on economic development, community outreach and the city's proposed waste-to-energy plant Tuesday night — despite repeated warnings that the event was not a debate. For more than a month, local groups have attempted to arrange a forum between the two-term mayor and his former councilman opponent, but it was a candidates night hosted by the Allentown branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that finally brought the pair together just two weeks before the election.

PHILADELPHIA - For Donovan McNabb, the timing could not have been more perfect. Considering what transpired in the first half of Thursday night's Chiefs-Eagles game, if there was ever a time that McNabb's 11 seasons as the Eagles' starting quarterback were going to be appreciated, it was after a half in which Michael Vick was just 5-for-12 passing for 46 yards. Oh, and Vick threw a pair of interceptions, had a snap go off his leg for a fumble and was sacked twice as Kansas City and former Eagles coach Andy Reid held a 16-6 halftime lead.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Needing a win over Mexico and a little help from Honduras to punch its ticket for next summer's World Cup, the U.S. took care of its business Tuesday, riding second-half goals by Eddie Johnson and Landon Donovan to a 2-0 victory before a raucous crowd of 24,584 at Columbus Crew Stadium. Then the Americans retired to their locker room where they watched Honduras and Panama play to a 2-2 draw, assuring the U.S. one of CONCACAF's three berths in Brazil. So when the dressing room finally opened again an hour later, it smelled of champagne.

A small group advocating tenants' rights brought handwritten placards to Allentown City Hall on Wednesday to push the city to do more to crack down on problem landlords. And in a signal the fall election campaign has officially begun, they were joined by independent mayoral candidate Michael Donovan, a professor at Cedar Crest College and former city councilman who is challenging Mayor Ed Pawlowski this fall as a Democrat. The underfunded Donovan faces an uphill battle against Pawlowski, whose campaign coffers held $112,000 as of June, as he seeks a third term as mayor amid unprecedented redevelopment in the downtown business district driven by the city's one-of-a-kind arena zone.

Just as "SportsCenter" became the centerpiece of ESPN's effort to revolutionize sports television back in the early 1980s, the new Fox Sports 1 network is its hoping that "Fox Sports Live" will become the draw that brings fans over for its nightly dose of highlights. After sampling the show for a few nights, it strikes me that "Fox Sports Live" is like a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. It's either going to have you smiling, maybe even laughing, and hoping for more, or it could prompt some foul language and have you reaching as fast as you can for the remote.

A 17-year-old boy who punched an Allentown councilman who reprimanded him for riding a go-cart in a city park could spend up to six months in a youth forestry camp, according to authorities. At a juvenile disposition hearing Friday in Lehigh County Court, Judge Kelly L. Banach ordered that the Allentown teen, who was not identified by authorities, be placed in the camp's residential program, which generally lasts six months. A probation officer will monitor the boy's progress and determine how long he stays in the forestry camp, the Lehigh County district attorney's office said.

By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call and By Emily Opilo, Of The Morning Call | August 7, 2013

The Allentown mayoral race is officially contested. Former City Councilman W. Michael Donovan filed nomination papers as an independent candidate for mayor by the Aug. 1 deadline, Lehigh County election officials said. Donovan announced in April that he would face off against two-term Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination during the May primary. During his spring announcement, Donovan pledged to help city residents see benefits from the Neighborhood Improvement Zone, the city's one-of-a-kind zone that allows developers to tap tenants' state and city taxes, not including property taxes, to finance construction.

The hard feelings have eroded over time, thanks in large part to a Monday ceremony during which the Philadelphia Eagles retired Donovan McNabb's number five and he officially retired as an Eagle. But his doubts about who was behind his departure from the organization in 2010 remain. The starting quarterback for all or parts of 11 seasons told reporters after Monday's news conference that his phone conversation with then coach Andy Reid on the day he was traded revealed no answer, and he's still curious about how the whole thing went down.